Message To Bill Maher: Exercise Your First Amendment Rights And You Will Pay
[guest post by Dana]
Recently we saw Bill Maher in a heated debate with Ben Affleck over the religion of peace. Maher pulled no punches with Affleck as he voiced his opinion about Islam and violence. As a result, his invitation to give the keynote address at UC Berkeley’s mid-year commencement is up in the air, as 1,400 students have signed a petition requesting it be rescinded:
The protest was started by the Change.org group and is backed by the Middle Eastern, Muslim and South Asian Coalition on campus, the paper reported.
“It’s not an issue of freedom of speech, it’s a matter of campus climate,” student senator Marium Navid told the newspaper. “The First Amendment gives him the right to speak his mind, but it doesn’t give him the right to speak at such an elevated platform as the commencement. That’s a privilege his racist and bigoted remarks don’t give him.”
…
“I can’t condone the university inviting a speaker that threatens the campus climate of our university,” [UC system student regent Sadia Saifuddin, who is Muslim] said in an email. “I believe there is a fundamental difference between free speech and hate speech, as well as a difference between Maher being allowed to express his views, and being given the honor of giving the keynote address sponsored by the university. And as the Student Regent, I don’t stand for any university-sponsored action that makes students feel unsafe and unwelcome, especially on such an important day as their commencement.”
Hello.
Dana (8e74ce) — 10/28/2014 @ 7:07 amHuh, leftists eat their own.
Walter Cronanty (f48cd5) — 10/28/2014 @ 7:13 amHello, Dana. It just struck me. You say hello every time and nobody says hello back. I’m sorry. And the rest of you guys, take a hint too.
What can I say about Maher or Berkeley students that would be nice? Nope. Nada, zip, zilch. They deserve each other.
nk (dbc370) — 10/28/2014 @ 7:20 am“I believe there is a fundamental difference between free speech and hate speech”
pst314 (ae6bd1) — 10/28/2014 @ 7:23 am–Sadia Saifuddin, who is Muslim
The Koran and the Hadith contain much that is hate speech, not to mention actual incitement to every kind of evil.
Go to England, Sadia. They have laws against hate speech there.
nk (dbc370) — 10/28/2014 @ 7:29 amDid you see that Boehlert fellow making a fool of himself?
http://twitchy.com/2014/10/27/media-matters-eric-boehlert-instapundits-all-caps-intros-paranoia-inducing/
What’s so amusing to me is how reflexively he lies. He knows perfectly well how Glenn Reynolds posts. He wrote a thoughtless post to defend President Boyfriend (imagine his response with the same situation with possible spying if GWB was Prezzie?). And got called on it.
It’s like “Mean Girls,” over and over again.
Kind of funny.
Simon Jester (c8876d) — 10/28/2014 @ 7:34 amCouldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Pious Agnostic (7eb3b0) — 10/28/2014 @ 7:35 amBill Maher is reliably anti-religious for sure. I don’t think he’ll care that his invitation might be pulled. But, if he does, it’ll be a huge mistake on the Muslim student organization’s part. It’ll go down as another example Maher can bash Islam for.
Dejectedhead (a094a6) — 10/28/2014 @ 7:40 am==“I believe there is a fundamental difference between free speech and hate speech”==
I’d like to see the “student regent” take her bumper sticker/hashtag slogan and try to hold her own exploring it in detail with some capable first amendment scholars and historians–hopefully people who are more interested in the basic concepts memorialized U.S. Constitution than in the “climate” on California college campuses.
As an aside, does anybody know when the term “hate speech” started to be widely used by the left as a way to shut people up? I don’t have time to research it today.
elissa (99d4f7) — 10/28/2014 @ 7:44 am“It’s not an issue of freedom of speech, it’s a matter of campus climate,”
Hmmm. Looks like we need climate change at UC Berekely.
PPs43 (6fdef4) — 10/28/2014 @ 7:48 amThe Eric Boehlert twitter thing is hilarious. I’d love to see Glenn temporarily enlarge the font of his all- caps intros for a few days just to enhance and draw attention to Eric’s idiocy.
elissa (99d4f7) — 10/28/2014 @ 7:56 amIsn’t it ok for students to start a petition to stop a speaker they don’t care for? Isn’t that kind of a free speech thing too? Or am I way off?
Georganne (e37667) — 10/28/2014 @ 8:33 amGreetings:
Didn’t the hippy-dippies used to whine that “You have not converted a man[woman/in-between] because you’ve silenced him.” ???
11B40 (844d04) — 10/28/2014 @ 8:36 amOh, it’s perfectly ok for students to do that, and I agree there is a difference between a free speech right and having the privilege of any given audience.
The give-away is when they consider the truth hate-speech.
Then it is no longer a free speech issue, it is an intellectual honesty issue.
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 10/28/2014 @ 8:38 amBeing honest is one of those inalienable rights. You can punish people for being honest, but only in a tyranny.
==Isn’t it ok for students to start a petition to stop a speaker they don’t care for? Isn’t that kind of a free speech thing too? Or am I way off?==
Yes, you’re way off. And thanks for asking. The time for college students to know they don’t “care for” someone’s thoughts and ideas is after they’ve heard the speech and honestly evaluated it, not beforehand based on pre-conceived conclusions of what the speaker’s probably going to say. The biggest gift colleges used to give students from varying backgrounds was exposure to different ideas (and yes sometimes even biases) that they were not previously privy to. The “la la la I can’t hear you because my fingers are in my ears” is about the furthest a person can remove themselves from a liberal education.
elissa (99d4f7) — 10/28/2014 @ 8:53 amI think leftists stopped worrying about truth a long time ago. Frankly, they wouldn’t know truth if it bit them in the proverbial derriere.
rochf (f3fbb0) — 10/28/2014 @ 8:55 amCould be true Georganne, however, the article stated: ” as 1,400 students have signed a petition requesting it be rescinded”.. Now 1400 students from an enrollment of over 36,000 sounds to me like a hateful and quite vocal minority is trying to impose speech censorship over an entire school. Apparently there are at least 1400 idiots at UC Berkeley who believe hearing something they disagree with somehow harms their sensitive psyche. Now these 1400 people are perhaps graduating and it sounds to me like they are completely incapable of getting along in civil society if their hatred and anti-Semitism is that pronounced. Perhaps they’d be better served petitioning UC Berkeley for a return of their tuition as they seemingly haven’t learned a damn thing at that school about coexisting with fellow citizens.
Hoagie (4dfb34) — 10/28/2014 @ 9:01 amMario Savio must be rolling in his crypt…
Colonel Haiku (c0421f) — 10/28/2014 @ 9:16 amI denounce these students for denouncing Maher who denounced Islamic violent worl-wide pestilence!
Colonel Haiku (c0421f) — 10/28/2014 @ 9:20 amThis phrase from the Princess Bride applies. “You Keep Using That Word, I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means”.
The truth, though it may be uncomfortable, is not hate speech.
Tanny O'Haley (066e8f) — 10/28/2014 @ 9:21 amWould a petition to stop Farrakhan from speaking be acceptable? Or would that be an attack on his free speech rights?
Or is the issue here just that Maher’s speech has been unfairly labeled as ‘hate speech’?
Georganne (e37667) — 10/28/2014 @ 9:30 amI’m even annoying myself at this point, but I have to say – If you feel that Maher’s words constitute ‘hate speech’ it is your first amendment right to say that…I would think anyway…
Georganne (e37667) — 10/28/2014 @ 9:32 amHello Dana.
“Hate speech” to me is “let’s round up all those filthy Jews and send them to concentration camps,” or “one dead body is a tragedy; a million dead bodies is a statistic.” But just as with the term “racism” it has evolved among progressives to mean “I declare the argument over and settled in my favor.”
JVW (60ca93) — 10/28/2014 @ 9:38 amI never have understood why a comedian would be an appropriate Commencement speaker in the first place, but I guess these days so much of the left depends on people like Maher and Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert for its daily information flow that times have changed since I was a sprout. The problem is that these nitwits probably believe Angela Davis and Mumia Abu-Jamal would be appropriate alternatives to Bill Maher.
We are doomed.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 10/28/2014 @ 9:52 amThese special little snowflakes in college sure are intolerant and closed-minded.
JD (2fc8db) — 10/28/2014 @ 9:54 amGeorgeann – do you condone the multiple examples of this?
JD (2fc8db) — 10/28/2014 @ 9:57 amI fear these students will find themselves incapable of functioning in a free society, much less find employment.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 10/28/2014 @ 10:00 amOf course she believes that. Her religion teaches her not to condone hate speech. Of course, under Sharia “hate speech” is called blasphemy.
And Bill Maher blasphemed. Mullims know how to treat blasphemers, and it’s a bit more involved than simply “unfriending” them on Facebook or from a commencement ceremony.
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/pakistan-execute-christian-woman-asia-bibi-blasphemy-1470410
Steve57 (e92787) — 10/28/2014 @ 10:03 amColonel – Your comment required a trigger warning. The micro aggressions in this comment thread are appalling.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 10/28/2014 @ 10:07 am@JD
Multiple examples of what?
Georganne (e37667) — 10/28/2014 @ 10:11 amI never have understood why a comedian would be an appropriate Commencement speaker in the first place. . .
daleyrocks, I’m guessing that the students are probably to blame here. I served as an undergraduate representative on my school’s commencement committee years ago. At one of our earliest meetings we started discussing who we wanted to invite as a speaker. I was aghast and appalled that my fellow students nominated Bill Cosby or Oprah Winfrey to speak to us, but I guess callow youth want to be entertained rather than enlightened. Actually, both Cosby and Oprah were (at least at the time) apolitical personalities, so maybe we had a certain wisdom in not wanting to be hectored to by some self-righteous a-hole. Despite the students’ desires, the administration ended up choosing a congressman who happened to be an alumnus.
JVW (60ca93) — 10/28/2014 @ 10:13 amIf you believe there is a category of speech called “hate speech” then you have flagged yourself as an enemy of the Constitution, since the notion of “hate speech” was invented and popularized to justify unconstitutional censorship.
So I suppose petty would-be tyrants have a 1st Amendment right to flag themselves as enemies of the 1st Amendment but that simply disqualifies them from any further discussion of “free speech.”
Steve57 (e92787) — 10/28/2014 @ 10:14 amOnly a comedian could tell these students what they want to hear at this stage of their indoctrination, right before they find out that their diplomas and hurt feelings don’t even qualify them to get a job supersizing happy meals.
When you think about it, a serious person is now wholly inappropriate to speak at a college graduation.
Which is why Obama gets invited to a lot of them.
Maybe if we stopped employing comedians as preezies and teachers then other comedians wouldn’t be speaking at these things.
Steve57 (e92787) — 10/28/2014 @ 10:22 amwell it’s Change.org, the folks that gave us the ‘gentle giant’, so no surprise there,
narciso (ee1f88) — 10/28/2014 @ 10:23 amMike and Trayvon
NO JUSTICE NO PEACE
Raaaaacists!!!!!!
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 10/28/2014 @ 10:45 amIt’s a pity they can’t both lose
Kevin M (e03aa8) — 10/28/2014 @ 10:47 am@Steve57
‘enemy of the Constitution’?
Ouch. My meager point was just that if some idiot wants to claim Maher’s words constitute ‘hate speech’ and signs a petition supporting this, so be it. It isn’t for me to tell her not to. I think all speech is fine until we get to that ‘imminent danger’ point.
Personally, I don’t like it when Maher calls Palin the ‘C’ word but whatever…the guy is pretty funny sometimes…
Georganne (e37667) — 10/28/2014 @ 10:51 amIt’s a pity they can’t both lose
Oh, I don’t know: maybe Maher’s invitation will stand but the Moslem students and their allies will shout him down or rush the stage or otherwise disrupt the event in such a way that he won’t be heard. And maybe some of those Moslem students will be arrested and expelled from the university (but Berkeley, so fat chance — whoops sorry for the micro aggression to my fellow lardbutts). Under that scenario, one can conclude, everyone will be the loser.
JVW (60ca93) — 10/28/2014 @ 10:54 amdaleyrocks (bf33e9) — 10/28/2014 @ 9:52 am
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 10/28/2014 @ 11:06 amThe sad thing is, daley, we had Walter Cronkite.
I’m not sure who has been more harmful to America, I think Cronkite.
As a result, his invitation to give the keynote address at UC Berkeley’s mid-year commencement is up in the air, as 1,400 students have signed a petition requesting it be rescinded:
Leave it to the LA Times to be factually wrong about the petition. It’s a change.org petition, so anyone can sign it, not just “students” let alone UC Berkeley students. It’s up to about 2500 signatures as of this writing, and certainly some of the signees identify themselves as Berkeley students or alums, but it seems equally clear that a lot of them are the garden-variety Moslem apologists and anti-free speech crowd. Moreover, some clever people have managed to add their voice. Here is a comment I just left on an NRO blog post which discusses this matter:
JVW (60ca93) — 10/28/2014 @ 11:10 amMD in Philly – I don’t remember Walter being a comedian? I remember him more as a Basset Hound who did not believe ordinary Americans should vote because they were too stupid.
In any event, calling Maher’s words “hate speech” serves the purpose of violating Berkeley’s Principles of Community so the progtards can report him to the appropriate authorities via the attached form:
https://ucsystems.ethicspointvp.com/custom/ucs_ccc/
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 10/28/2014 @ 11:19 amdaley, no, he wasn’t a comedian, but he wasn’t an impartial news broadcaster either.
At least some people know not to take comedians seriously as news reporters,
we didn’t know that we should have questioned Cronkite’s motives and deeds.
Speaking of free speech, now for something refreshing:
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 10/28/2014 @ 11:29 amOne quote, “To hell with your minimum wage, we don’t have jobs.”
http://rebelpundit.com/chicago-activists-unchained-destroy-black-liberal-leadership/
“daley, no, he wasn’t a comedian, but he wasn’t an impartial news broadcaster either.”
MD in Philly – Nope, he was just another plutocrat pluralist from the party of the rich who wanted to dictate how you should live your life.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 10/28/2014 @ 11:36 amBut I didn’t know it at the time, daley.
I think more people realize that Stewart and Colbert are comedians than who realized Cronkite had an agenda,
that’s all.
but check that link.
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 10/28/2014 @ 11:50 amGeorgeanne – your play acting as though you don’t know how many times the little snowflakes have done this is just precious.
JD (45413e) — 10/28/2014 @ 11:58 am“Oh, I don’t know: maybe Maher’s invitation will stand but the Moslem students and their allies will shout him down or rush the stage or otherwise disrupt the event in such a way that he won’t be heard.”
Suicide,Homocide Letterman Sweater Vests perhaps?
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 10/28/2014 @ 12:01 pmPresident Obola is now speaking on the White House Lawn.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 10/28/2014 @ 12:07 pmWhy doesn’t somebody help him up? Where’s the Secret Service?
nk (dbc370) — 10/28/2014 @ 12:15 pmThey’re out hooring…
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 10/28/2014 @ 12:17 pm@JD
I honestly find you confusing. I don’t post on these things much and I find them hard to follow. Were you referring to college students being obnoxious? Or claiming to call out intolerance while being intolerant? That sort of thing? Well duh. I don’t like that d-bag Westboro preacher carrying signs claiming God hates certain individuals either. But free speech is free speech. If he doesn’t get to say what he thinks, I don’t get to say what I think. Same goes for stupid college kids and their petitions.
Georganne (e37667) — 10/28/2014 @ 12:25 pmI suspect JD is exasperated that Georganne isn’t expressing more exasperation with college students’ frequent efforts to censor campus speech that the students dislike.
Of course, Georganne is correct that the right to free speech includes the right to SAY, “Shut that guy up before he utters a word in this public forum, I say he’s a bigot!” That doesn’t make it right (to shut the guy up), nor was Georganne saying it is.
Mitch (341ca0) — 10/28/2014 @ 12:45 pmYou’re missing the point, Goerganne. The “stupid college kids” petion was not to say what they think, it was tostop Bill Maher from saying what he thinks. They were not exercising their free speech, they were attempting to stop someone else from exercising his.
Hoagie (4dfb34) — 10/28/2014 @ 1:01 pmThere’s a large space between criticizing speech that one might personally find offensive and working to counter it with rational speech–versus what is being done here at Berkeley, which is actively attempting to ban certain speech and speakers from the public square. This is a troubling trend on American University campuses whether the efforts pertain to canceling/disinviting a lightweight comedian such as Maher, or distinguished and accomplished women such as Condoleeza Rice or Ayaan Hirsi Ali from already scheduled speeches. You can dance around this all you want, Georganne. This is what most of the commenters here are reacting to. The Politico article about this also has over 1200 appended comments. Most of them are along the lines of “Duh, what do you expect. It’s
elissa (0fa93a) — 10/28/2014 @ 1:08 pmChinatownBerkeley”.Bill maher was invited by administration not students that is their complaint. And for being the home of free speech movement do any of you know what they were wanting to speak freely about?
palestinian (275d64) — 10/28/2014 @ 1:16 pmOnce again – what if the petition were to stop Louis Farrakhan from speaking?
I think it is free speech to say ‘I don’t want this person to speak at my college and I’m willing to take the time and trouble to see if enough people agree with me to stop it from happening.’
Probably.
That’s all.
Georganne (e37667) — 10/28/2014 @ 1:18 pmI see a distinction between never turning on Bill Maher’s show on my TV, and asking the authorities to take him off the air so nobody else can tune their TV to him either. I think what the Berkeley capraphiles are doing is the second. And Berkeley being a state university gives the general public a stronger right to be the ones to choose whom to hear, and not the falafel-and-couscous brigades. But I agree that the kabob-on-koubzes have the right to peacefully petition their school authorities to keep Maher out.
nk (dbc370) — 10/28/2014 @ 1:19 pmNo one’s trying to stop Farrakhan from speaking… at least that I’m aware of.
Colonel Haiku (c0421f) — 10/28/2014 @ 1:29 pmIf a douche like Farrakhan can speak freely, no reason douche Maher can’t as well . You don’t like what they say or have to sell? Tune ’em out.
Colonel Haiku (c0421f) — 10/28/2014 @ 1:35 pmany takers on what the berkeley free speech movement was all about?
palestinian (275d64) — 10/28/2014 @ 1:39 pmAnd for being the home of free speech movement do any of you know what they were wanting to speak freely about?
A campus-wide ban on underage camel molestation by Arab students and faculty, I believe.
nk (dbc370) — 10/28/2014 @ 1:40 pmIs that you, Perry?
nk (dbc370) — 10/28/2014 @ 1:41 pmYou keep bringing up the odious Farrrakhan. Are you familiar with the neo-Nazi march in Skokie Il–which at the time in 1977 had one of the highest concentrations of actual Holocaust survivors in the nation (5000)? After attempts to block it, the march went on, and it served as one of the most profound and useful modern moments in the discussion about free speech.
The whole article is worth a read.
elissa (0fa93a) — 10/28/2014 @ 1:46 pmhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/geoffrey-r-stone/remembering-the-nazis-in_b_188739.html
Yeah, that was a no-brainer of a case. If the police keep Illinois Nazis from marching down the middle of the street, how will people be able to run them over?
nk (dbc370) — 10/28/2014 @ 1:58 pmBy the same token, a petition signed by Muslims students is a ready-made terror watch list.
nk (dbc370) — 10/28/2014 @ 2:01 pmPerry’d walk a mile for a camel.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 10/28/2014 @ 2:17 pmCamel Abdel Nasser ?
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 10/28/2014 @ 2:21 pmQ: Why did the Hamas-run school alternate Sex Education classes with Drivers Ed.?
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 10/28/2014 @ 2:30 pmA: They only had one camel.
Georgeanne – while I may confuzzle you, you are not the least bit confusing to us. Elissa pegged you quite clearly, above.
And yes, nk. That is another Perry. Shocking.
JD (285732) — 10/28/2014 @ 2:37 pm1400 students out of how many total in the student body?
give them all a nice big cup of STFU and a collection of SCOTUS rulings on the First Amendment.
if they still don’t get it, give them a free trip to the airport and a one way ticket to someplace they’ll be happier at.
redc1c4 (dab236) — 10/28/2014 @ 2:46 pmoh, and if his presence bothers them that much, they should have the courage of their convictions and not attend the ceremony.
just go by the Registrar’s Office and pick up your diploma, and get on with your sad shallow little headbanging lives.
redc1c4 (dab236) — 10/28/2014 @ 2:51 pmDid anyone look at my link?
It will make your day, really.
http://rebelpundit.com/chicago-activists-unchained-destroy-black-liberal-leadership/
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 10/28/2014 @ 2:59 pmThe only rational solution is for students to show up at commencement blindly drunk, fool around on their smart phones while Maher speaks, then accidentally vomit at the chancellor’s feet as they collect their diplomas. That’s how you stand for free speech while protesting Maher’s obnoxiousness.
JVW (60ca93) — 10/28/2014 @ 3:09 pmIn other words, just behave at their graduation ceremony like they did in every class they took for the last four years?
Steve57 (e92787) — 10/28/2014 @ 3:15 pm“oh, and if his presence bothers them that much, they should have the courage of their convictions and not attend the ceremony.
just go by the Registrar’s Office and pick up your diploma, and get on with your sad shallow little headbanging lives.”
redc1c4 (dab236) — 10/28/2014 @ 2:51 pm
And get off his lawn!
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 10/28/2014 @ 3:16 pmMD – like the State Sen from Louisiana, they will be ignored.
JD (285732) — 10/28/2014 @ 3:32 pmMD in Philly – Yes. Thank you for posting that link. Someone sent it to me earlier today. There is a pastor on the South Side here who has stirred things up with similar comments and his house was broken into over the weekend.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 10/28/2014 @ 3:36 pmMaybe so JD,
but evidence of someone, anyone, starting to pay attention is nice to see.
Like that pastor out in Simi Valley who said if African Americans in cars started acting like reasonable people maybe they wouldn’t find themselves being treated as unreasonable.
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 10/28/2014 @ 3:36 pmI bet so daley. Something about bringing a knife to a fist-fight, a gun to a knife-fight, and violence to a political fight.
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 10/28/2014 @ 3:39 pmThere is a pastor on the South Side here who has stirred things up with similar comments and his house was broken into over the weekend.
Were the perpetrators seen wearing purple SEIU shirts?
JVW (60ca93) — 10/28/2014 @ 4:10 pmDamn that tiny little violin… every time I want to play it to soothe the wounded feelings of “progressives” who have suffered accidental reality exposure, I can’t find the damned thing!!
Ray Van Dune (d9ea85) — 10/28/2014 @ 5:55 pmDon’t worry, a free society and employment are not big items to them. They plan to achieve a world free of both!
Ray Van Dune (d9ea85) — 10/28/2014 @ 6:16 pm“Once again – what if the petition were to stop Louis Farrakhan from speaking?”
It’s still wrong. It’s not “unconstitutional” – it’s wrong. You fight ideas with other ideas, not by shutting speakers up.
As Hoagie said, the First Amendment protects your right to speak, not your right to shut other people up. Teaching students to cocoon themselves with trigger warnings, hate speech restrictions etc. narrow their minds. Universities were supposed to broaden their experiences and challenge their thinking, not promote conformity, bias and groupthink.
SocietyIs2Blame (5e7640) — 10/28/2014 @ 7:29 pm“Don’t worry, a free society and employment are not big items to them. They plan to achieve a world free of both!”
Exactly. Berkeley and other schools are teaching them how to turn the post-college world into the same echo chamber of GoodThink and conformity. We’re seeing the results every day.
And the 1400 students? Love to see how many are Muslims and/or affiliated with the MSA and other groups. Out of 30k students the numbers would be more than right. It’s stealth jihad. They’re giving Muslim extremists a veto over Constitutional rights that Berkeley supposedly spearheaded for decades. Berkeley is turning into a sharia campus in the name of diversity with “hate speech” as a stalking horse. Ironic to say the least.
SocietyIs2Blame (5e7640) — 10/28/2014 @ 7:34 pmTexas-worthy wit and wisdom from our latest Chicago refugee.
https://twitter.com/iowahawkblog/status/527121193154142208
Steve57 (e92787) — 10/28/2014 @ 9:08 pmTufts University hosted Islamists this weekend at a training session for “Direct Action”:
Guess who wasn’t complaining about the campus climate and bigoted “hate” speech…
Dana (8e74ce) — 10/28/2014 @ 9:17 pmDana, anyone can sign a Change.org petition, not just students … and it’s almost certain that most of the signatories are not Cal students — the ones whose comments are posted on the petition seem to be from all over the place. And as Weasel Zippers seems to have found, the petition’s author is a CAIR intern from Irvine, whose Cal student status is unconfirmed.
In other words, the petition is a bit of CAIR astroturfing, and the media doesn’t seem to be asking questions about who’s behind it or who’s signing it.
Alex (f15f55) — 10/29/2014 @ 1:01 amBecause they CAIR…
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 10/29/2014 @ 5:32 am